Following the recent backlash against lack of diversity in UK publishing, a new annual literary prize as been announced restricted to writers of colour, to recognise “[authors] who feel that their work is often marginalised unless it fulfils a romantic fetishisation of their cultural heritage”.

The Jhalak prize for book of the year by a writer of colour will be awarded annually to British or British-resident writers, with the overall winner awarded £1,000. It is the first prize in the UK to only accept entries by writers of colour. All genres, including fiction, short stories, non-fiction, graphic novels, poetry and children’s books, will be eligible, as will titles by self-published authors and ebooks.

When the marginalised demand change, we are told to ‘do something for ourselves.’ The Jhalak Prize is ‘doing something'

Sunny Singh

Jhalak means “glimpse” in Hindi and related northern Indian dialects; something implicitly brief, often tantalising with promise, that piques curiosity to explore further.

Started by novelists Sunny Singh and Nikesh Shukla and non-profit organisation Media Diversified, and supported by the Authors’ Club as well as an anonymous benefactor who provided the prize money, the Jhalak prize is part of a growing momentum for change in UK publishing and the industry’s “old monoculture”, as it was described in last year’s Writing the Future report. The report found that the best chance of publication for writers of colour was to write literary fiction conforming to a stereotypical view of their communities, addressing topics such as “racism, colonialism or postcolonialism as if these were the primary concerns of all BAME people” and called for change. Later in 2015, outrage grew when an all-white World Book Night list was announced.

How do we stop UK publishing being so posh and white?

Read more

“It’s a perfect loop-de-loop of blame and it gets very wearing – nobody wants to take responsibility,” Nikesh Shukla told the Guardian at the time. “When you criticise prizes and review coverage and lists for not being diverse enough, you’re told it’s because of what publishers are submitting, that it just reflects what publishers are putting out. So you say OK, publishers, and they say that what they publish reflects what they’re sent by agents. So you say to agents, ‘where are the brown people?’ and they say they don’t discriminate, they just aren’t getting submissions through.

“So you say it’s the writers’ fault … you speak to writers, and they say they look at the prizes, the lists, the reviews, the bookshops, and they don’t see themselves reflected. So whose responsibility is it? I’ve taken it on myself to be my responsibility. I’m still not particularly well-known, but I have people’s attention, so I can shout for the people who feel disenfranchised,” said Shukla.

“When the marginalised demand structural change, our demands are fobbed off with being told to ‘do something for ourselves’. The Jhalak prize is precisely ‘doing something’,” Sunny Singh said. “I hope it not only stops the patronising suggestions that we aren’t taking action, but also inspires the publishing industry to look beyond the present narrow margins.”

To be eligible this year, books must be published in the UK in 2016 and originally published in English. The author must be resident in the UK for a minimum of the calendar year in which the book is submitted.

'Where are the brown people?': authors slam lack of diversity in UK publishing

Read more

The judging panel will be announced in August and will include authors, journalists and broadcasters of colour. Submissions will be accepted between 1 September and 30 November, and the shortlist will be announced at the end of January 2017. The winner will be announced in February 2017, in tandem with the BareLit festival.